From our London branch
Join us for this free, in-person CPD event from University of Liverpool Lecturer Xu Dai.
Synopsis
Simulation-based approaches for characterising the fire behaviour of travelling fires in large compartments are a potentially valuable complement to experimental studies, providing useful insights on evolving boundary conditions for structural response. They admit the possibility of carrying out systematic parametric studies decoupled
from experimental uncertainties, however, sufficiently general models have not been previously demonstrated. Here, we explore the potential for “scaling-up” a “stick-by-stick” CFD model which had been carefully calibrated for the case of an isolated crib, of 2.8 m diameter, to a uniformly distributed fuel bed of extent 4.2 m ×14.0 m located within an open compartment 9 ×15 m in plan, with internal height 2.9 m. The results in terms of the fire spread and burnout predictions are very encouraging, and the heat release rate evolution is also consistent with the experimental value. Furthermore, there is a relatively good match of predicted and measured incident radiant fluxes during the fire spread on the wood cribs.
Discrepancies in predicted post fire fluxes and gas phase temperatures can be attributed to the effects of wind on the fire plume (not modelled) and deficiencies in representation of heat transfer from the glowing embers. These factors are expected to have a modest impact on the prediction of fire spread on a horizontally-orientated flat fuel bed, the prime interest of the current work. Thus, the established “numerical simulator” looks to have good potential as a tool to explore and characterise the behaviour of travelling fires subject to different compartment boundary conditions.
About the speaker: Xu Dai
Dr Xu Dai is a Lecturer in Structural Engineering at the University of Liverpool and a specialist in fire engineering. His research focuses on understanding the interaction between fire dynamics and structural behaviour to improve the resilience of buildings and infrastructure under fire. He is particularly known for his work on travelling fires in large open-plan compartments, performance-based design, large-scale fire experiments, and advanced numerical modelling of structures exposed to fire.
Dr Dai was awarded the prestigious RAEng/Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship by the Royal Academy of Engineering for 2024/25, as one of only seven awardees nationally. Prior to joining Liverpool, he was Senior Lecturer in Fire Engineering at Birmingham City University, where he led the UK’s first BEng degree apprenticeship in fire engineering. He also worked as a Senior Fire Engineer at Buro Happold in London, delivering performance-based fire engineering solutions for complex structures.
Earlier in his career, Dr Dai conducted research at the National Fire Research Laboratory (NFRL) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the United States and at the University of Edinburgh on internationally funded projects related to travelling fires and structural resilience.
He actively collaborates with industry, government agencies, and fire services to support evidence-based fire safety engineering solutions and policy development.